


Call for Help (Please Hear Me)

by starmelee



Series: Remnants [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Taakitz adopts Angus, kravitz is the second best dad in the world, taako loves angus so fucking much okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28021848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starmelee/pseuds/starmelee
Summary: Angus McDonald has lived through the most insane apocalyptic event that has probably ever graced the planes of existence.Everything is okay, he thinks, but some part of his brain wants to make him think otherwise.(He lives through the apocalypse. They all do. But there's some lasting damage.)
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Kravitz & Angus McDonald, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Series: Remnants [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2052495
Comments: 4
Kudos: 88





	Call for Help (Please Hear Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I literally finished TAZ Balance today, but holy SHIT, was that the ride to end all rides. Not sure I'll ever be able to feel the same way about a D&D Campaign again. 
> 
> Either way, Taako is my comfort character and I'm really soft for Taakiz adopting Angus. I feel like the boy doesn't receive enough love, and I very much enjoy some nightmare angst, so here's this thing I wrote in like, 30 minutes. Unedited and filled with only a fraction of the residual emotion my brain is attempting to process after Story and Song. (I cried. A lot.)

“T-Taako?” 

It hardly takes a whisper, Angus isn’t even sure he’s actually said it out loud before the elf appears at his bedside. He’s not sure if Taako ever really sleeps these days; it feels as though he’s always at Angus’s beck and call. 

“Hey, pumpkin. Nightmare?” 

_The darkness is thick, the viscous liquid rising higher and higher around him. Tendrils of blackness laced with flashes of red, green, blue, yellow— they engulf his friends and his loved ones with merciless and seemingly reckless abandon.  
_

_The first to go is the Director. She disappears with a hopeless expression on her face, the darkness pushing her further down, engulfing her before she can even so much as gasp out a final syllable, let alone any final words._

_Next, Merle. Angus watches as the dwarf fights, he’s kicking and trying to cast any spells that he can but they just won’t work, and he’s trying, and trying, and he shouts for **someone, anyone,** to save them from the Hunger. The tendrils envelop him and he, too, is swallowed by the black sea laced with horrifying light. _

_After that, Davenport, trying to get anyone to stand up and do what they can against it— but he never begs. He never cries. Angus watches him go with a steeled determination._

_At this point, he’s yelling, crying, screaming for help, for someone to **see him** , for someone to **do something!** _

_Magnus is the first one to look at him, and there are tears in his eyes as he begs for forgiveness. Angus knows that it is both from him, and from some others. Angus doesn’t have enough time to say anything before he’s stabbed through the chest by a tendril and the ocean, turbulent below its perfectly still surface, rises up and drags him beneath._

_He sees Kravitz, next, having fought to the surface somehow from underneath. But he’s losing, he’s growing exhausted against the sludge. Kravitz’s breath comes out in heavy pants as his arms struggle to push him up from the blackness, from the Hunger, and he calls into the nothingness for **help!** Angus tries to cry back in response but is ultimately powerless before Kravitz loses. He loses the will to fight, he loses the strength to keep going. Angus watches him sink back into the horrifying ocean. _

_Lup and Barry appear before him together standing atop a small island that rises above the sea. They’re standing together, and the tentacles close in on them from all sides, and Lup is shouting and trying her absolute hardest to cast any spells, any at all. She’s screaming everything from cantrips to the most powerful spells Angus could ever hope to imagine learning. Barry is with her, yelling with her, and then he stops. And he whispers something to Lup that makes her stop. And they look at each other. And Angus watches them get in one last kiss before the tendrils wrap around them and shove them into the sill, yet so, so turbulent water below._

_Finally, he feels someone wrap their arms around him. Immediately, Angus knows._

_“Taako, please-” his voice breaks, the tears he hadn’t noticed were suddenly ice cold and burning hot on his skin at the same time._

_“I’m sorry, little man. We... we lose.” And his voice is so **broken** , so **lost**. Suddenly, Taako is ripped away from him and he is left frozen, endlessly screaming into this darkness, the darkness that somehow contains everything he loves and nothing at all and he is asking for help. _

_It can’t be over. But it is._

Angus sobs, curling in on himself. He can’t see anything in the darkness of his room and that _terrifies_ him, but he doesn’t want to try and cast any magic just in case it doesn’t work and he sees what happens to planes swallowed by the Hunger. 

Suddenly, through his eyelids, he sees light. Not red, not blue or green or yellow. **White**. And he opens his eyes, he turns his head left; suddenly, he’s hugging Taako as if he will disappear if Angus doesn’t hold on with all of his might. 

“Woah, woah, it’s okay, Ango, I’m here.” Taako’s rubbing soothing circles into his back and trying to breathe more strongly so Angus can copy him. He’s helping him; Taako’s answered his cry for help and that only makes him cry harder. 

At some point, he feels Taako pull away and he tightens his grip. 

“Don’t worry, I’m gonna pick you up, okay?” 

Angus can only nod before he feels Taako lift him and hold him to his chest, letting him get the remnants of his tears out while they wander from the confines of his room. He knows that Taako is taking them to the kitchen, and he knows that Kravitz is probably already getting everything ready in the kitchen. But this time, it lulls his cries instead of causing more of them. 

Kravitz’s voice is clear, “Is he…?” 

“Yeah, we’re getting better. Now, if you fuck up my hot cocoa recipe, I might just kick your ass.” Taako’s voice is light, so the threat only makes Kravitz chuckle, but the interaction warms Angus in a way that makes him realize he had no idea he’d felt cold. 

He listens to Taako breathe, and hears the milk pour into the pan, and hears the splash as chocolate is dropped in, and finally, Angus knows he’s safe. His breathing slows, and he turns his head so he can watch Kravitz over the stove.

“It’s good to see you,” Kravitz says, smiling back at him. “I think this might be the best hot cocoa yet,” he winks. 

He feels Taako’s chest stutter with a snort. “As _if_ , grimdork. There will never be a more perfect dish than one crafted by yours truly.” Angus feels himself being placed on the island, but Taako doesn’t move away. Instead, he finds that one of Taako’s hands goes to his hair, trimmed nails that Angus knows are painted purple start to comb through. 

They’re talking for his sake, Angus knows, because he’s seen them have silent conversations before. He knows that they can communicate a joke, a secret, a wish, with a few waving eyebrows and subtle facial expressions, but they’re talking because they know that there is now no sound more comforting than the sound of their voices after a nightmare. 

A nightmare where they couldn’t use them anymore. 

He has to choke back another sob, but Taako’s other hand rises to start rubbing those circles into his back before he can get caught up in the thoughts. He’s okay. They’re okay. 

After what could have been hours, they all move to the living room and sit on the couch, Angus staying in Taako’s lap, Kravitz just to the left of them. They each hold their own mugs and Taako is making jokes about how decent the cocoa is, and Kravitz is laughing and telling him that maybe he should make it next time instead. 

But after a few moments, it gets quiet. Kravitz is the first one to speak. 

“Angus, if you… if you ever want to, or if you ever need to talk about your dreams? We’re here. We’re always here.” 

“What he said, we aren’t going fuckin’ anywhere, Ango. We got your back, okay? So if I gotta fuck up some nightmares for you so you can get a good night’s sleep? I’ll do it.” There’s a pause, and he feels Taako’s chest rise sharply beneath him, “Angus-” Taako’s voice breaks, and Angus turns to look at him with a start.

However, Taako buries his face in Angus’s shoulder before he can fully turn around. He can quickly feel the tears seep through his shirt. “Angus, you know I’m- I’m total _ass_ when it comes to emotions, right? Well, just this fuckin’ once, I do… I do love you. And I fucking mean it when I say I would do anything to help you, okay?” Angus knows that this is an extremely difficult thing for Taako to admit, but he can’t help but feel his heart _soar_ at the idea of Taako doing _anything_ for him. 

“I-” his voice breaks too, and he had to hold back another sob. It’s a good one, this time. “I love you guys, too.” 

By the time the sun rises the next morning, three mugs are forgotten on the coffee table. And in Taako and Kravitz’s bedroom, a beam of sunlight just barely crests three heads poking out from the comforter on the bed.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked my work! Be on the lookout for more!


End file.
